Eliza Dushku breaks silence on Bull harassment
“I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired."
- Published by David Knox
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US actor Eliza Dushku has slammed CBS and her former co-star Michael Weatherly after reaching a settlement of $9.5m ($AU13.4m) over allegations of harassment on the set of Bull.
Dushku joined the show at the end of its first season with the expectation of becoming a regular cast member in Season 2 but was written off the show after three episodes.
“I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired,” Dushku tells the Boston Globe.
Dushku asserts that in addition to the money, she demanded as part of the settlement that CBS send a sexual harassment expert to monitor Weatherly’s conduct on the set. She also asserts she was promised a meeting with Steven Spielberg, head of Amblin Partners, which produces Bull with CBS Television Studios. That meeting is yet to happen.
While the settlement included a non-disclosure agreement, she decided to speak up after reading “deflection, denial, and spin” from the network, Weatherly, and showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron in a report last week by the New York Times.
Allegations included Weatherly making comments about wanting to have a “threesome” with her and many other sexually charged remarks. After she complained to the studio, Dushku asserts that Weatherly worked to have her fired, accusing her of having a “humour deficit.”
“Weatherly had a habit of exaggerated eye-balling and leering at me; once, he leaned into my body and inhaled, smelling me in a dramatic swoon,” Dushku writes. “As was caught on tape, after I flubbed a line, he shouted in my face, ‘I will take you over my knee and spank you like a little girl.’ “
Pauley Perrette and Sasha Alexander — both of whom co-starred with Weatherly on NCIS — pledged their support for him.
“This man… I love, respect, trust, and I KNOW. TWO decades of friendship and respect,” Perrette tweeted. “The best. I love you @M_Weatherly. Always and forever.”
Alexander echoed the sentiment, writing, “I have been in trenches w/ my friend @M_Weatherly. Always laughs, true friend & [a heart] as big as they come.”
In a statement to the New York Times, Weatherly apologised for his behaviour, acknowledging that “what I said was both not funny and not appropriate, and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza.”
He denied having anything to do with her firing.
Bull screens in Australia on 10.